How To Start an Online Store with Shopify

1. How to Use Shopify to Start an Online Business SHOPIFY EXPERTS

2. Shopify is built to help businesses set up their virtual storefront and allow online shoppers to purchase from them, regardless of where they are based. Here, we are presenting how you can use Shopify to start your online store through this extensive guide. We’ve covered every step you need to take to start selling on Shopify and the different types of businesses that you can start on the platform. Let’s start with why Shopify is the best eCommerce platform to take Your Business Online.

3. Why Shopify is the Best eCommerce Platform to take Your Business Online Shopify’s popularity as an eCommerce platform lies in its features and ecosystem. What’s more, if merchant to set up more specific features, they can by installing the app of their choice through the Shopify App Store. Shopify App Store has more than 4.2K apps available, from marketing to sales to custom design features. This allows merchants to find the exact solution they need for their Shopify store. This ecosystem helps merchants build a community they can relate to and get help whenever they face issues. This Shopify ecosystem makes the experience of starting and growing an online business much easier.

4. How to Use Shopify to Take your Business Online 1. Find your Niche When picking your niche, it’s always important to specialize. Pick a niche that resonates with you, one which you are passionate about. It’s always important to do market research to understand the needs of consumers online and the gaps in the eCommerce industry. Through your research, you’ll be able to narrow down on a niche that you can make an impact in. Remember the idea is to get a concrete answer to how to use Shopify.

5. 2. Name your business From picking your business name to defining who your brand is, your branding can make you more identifiable to consumers. When branding your business, you can ask these questions: • Who are your potential customers? What are their motivations? What makes them buy from you? • How would you position your benefits as a brand? • What kind of brand are you? How do you want to come across to your shoppers? • What is the tone of voice you want to use within your brand messaging? Here’s a Shopify brand building guide that walks you through the steps of creating an addictive brand.

6. 3. Sign up on Shopify Signing up on Shopify is as easy as setting up a free trial. Shopify lets you test out the platform before making you set up a subscription, allowing you to understand how the platform works and letting you understand if the platform is made for you. 4. Pick a theme A Shopify theme is a framework for how your website would look like. These themes are available as free as well as paid, depending on how many customizations are available within the theme. When you’re starting out, especially as a small merchant, it’s best to use a free theme. You can later upgrade to a paid theme. We have designed some free Shopify themes over the years for stores of different industries. Find them here.

7. 5. Customize your theme After picking out your theme, it’s time to customize it! You can customize your theme through the Shopify theme editor. Here, you can add new sections like featured products, hero section, and announcement bar, and even customize how each page looks . Copy edits to your storefront are done through the theme editor.

8. 6. Add your products to your online catalog Here are some best practices when uploading your products to your Shopify dashboard: • Ensure that you follow a consistent style for all your product titles. • Add multiple images of each product to show how it looks. • Add alt-text for your product images. • Optimize your product page URL. • Structure your products and sort them into collections for easy browsing. • Add a description of the product to entice shoppers to buy the item. • If possible, shoot and upload a product video. Apps like Typito are perfect to make your product videos.

9. 7. Activate payment methods and tweak shipping and taxes. It’s now time to make your Shopify store shoppable! Shopify supports multiple payment methods, from debit cards, UPIs, and credit cards to cash-on-delivery and pay-later schemes. It’s crucial to enable multiple payment methods to allow your shoppers to choose their preferred payment type. Adjust your shipping rates and taxes based on where your business is registered and taxes and shipping rates levied on you.

10. 8. Enable crucial on-site features to help you sell more To optimize your onsite experience, you can start with these 5 apps: • Display recommendations using Wiser. These can help you keep customers engaged at different parts of your Shopify store, from the end of your product pages to the cart page. • Set up a well-designed and branded customer account page using Flits. The Shopify app lets you customize how your customer account page looks and lets you add more personalized features like wishlists and rewards. • Build credibility on your store by collecting and displaying reviews using the Photo Reviews and Testimonials app. • Highlight specific products and build urgency while shoppers are scrolling through your products by adding product labels using ModeMagic. The Shopify app lets you add customized product labels. You can pick up the best Shopify apps that you need to improve your on-site experience through this blog.

11. 09. Enable marketing Here are a few Shopify marketing apps to help you get started: • Set up SMS marketing with TxtCart. The Shopify app lets you send SMS campaigns and recover abandoned carts on autopilot. • Use SmartrMail to promote your brand through email. Email is a powerful channel and is a must-have for every merchant. • Use Facebook Messenger to connect with your shoppers better. You can send promotions through Facebook Messenger with Recart. • If WhatsApp is a popular channel among your audience, you can enable the platform for your marketing as well. SuperLemon is a Shopify app made for WhatsApp marketing.

12. 10. Buy your Custom Domain Now that you’ve set up your Shopify store and it’s ready to launch, you can buy your custom domain to start selling to the public. This process is fairly simple. You can choose the domain of your choice, see the pricing for your annual subscription for each available domain, and pick the preferred domain. Once you’ve picked your domain, you can set up payment. 11. Launch your store! Now that you’ve completed your steps, you can officially launch your Shopify store! Before you do, ensure that you hype your Shopify store’s launch weeks before and build a subscriber list you can promote your store to.

13. We hope this guide helps you understand how to use Shopify to start your online business. Shopify’s free trial allows you to set up your store and test it out before you start paying for your Shopify plan. Hire Shopify Experts to set up your Shopify store now!